752 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



obedience exists, and the instincts, appetites, and impulses of the 

 lower animals remain in him, or disappear only as reason is ade- 

 quate to take their place. And in any case there is no alleviation 

 for the woes of life, " save the absolute veracity of action ; the 

 resolute facing of the world as it is." 



The intense practicality of all this must be recognized. The 

 truths of science are approximate, not absolute. They must be 

 stated in terms of human consciousness, and they can never be 

 dissevered from possible human action. Knowledge which can 

 only accumulate without being woven into conduct has never 

 been a boon to its possessor. As food must be formed into tissue, 

 so must perception go over into action. In the lower forms, we 

 have the devices, chiefly automatic, by which sensation trans- 

 mitted to the sensorium reappears as motion. In like manner 

 we find in man, besides these reflex transfers, and the reflex con- 

 nections formed by habit, that science becomes changed to art 

 and knowledge to power. Power and effectiveness are condi- 

 tioned on accuracy. Every failure in the sense organ, every form 

 of deterioration of the nerves, shows itself in reduction of power. 

 Reduced effectiveness shows itself through the processes of natu- 

 ral selection, as reduction is safety in life. Thus the degeneration 

 of the nervous gystem through excesses, through precocious ac- 

 tivity, or through the effect of stimulants shows itself in untrust- 

 worthy perceptions, in uncontrolled muscles, and in the lack of 

 security in life. Incidentally all these are recorded by fall in 

 social standing. With the reduction of the accuracy of recog- 

 nition of reality the person ceases to hold his place as a man 

 among men. 



Similar failure comes with any cause impairing the recogni- 

 tion of the reality of external things. The sober mind is neces- 

 sary to safety in life. In general all civilized men are well born. 

 They come of good stock. For the lineage of perversity, insanity, 

 and even stupidity is never a long one. The perverse, insane, and 

 the stupid live through the tolerance of others. They can not 

 maintain themselves, and, in spite of charity and the sense of 

 conventionality, the mortality caused by the fool-killer is some- 

 thing enormous. It is an essential element in race progress. It 

 grows with increased civilization, because of increasing com- 

 plexity of condition. It is the chief compensating influence for 

 the life-saving which has been made possible for scientific re- 

 search. As Prof. H. H. Powers has said, " There is in civilization 

 not a single vice that race progress can spare.'* " The fool-killer," 

 Dr. Bailey tells us, "the fool-curer, and the fool-preventer are 

 alike servants of the living God." 



The recent " recrudescence of superstition " a striking accom- 

 paniment of an age of science is in a sense dependent on science. 



